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Premiership leader, Potter both return this weekend

Premiership-leader Jessica Eaton and local stalwart Justin Potter will both return to SA riding ranks this weekend following injury-enforced breaks.

Eaton leads the metropolitan jockeys’ premiership by four wins, despite missing virtually all of the 2021 Adelaide Racing Carnival, after a nasty fall while riding Pelonomena in the Port Adelaide Cup on the carnival’s opening day.

Joining Eaton back at the races on Saturday is senior hoop Justin Potter, whose was injured in November.

A meteoric rise to prominence since moving from Victoria to South Australia last year had Eaton primed to make an impact during the carnival, mining her dynamic partnership with emerging Murray Bridge trainer Michael Hickmott.

However, fate intervened in the Port Cup and the 27-year-old’s frightening tumble left her with a deep gash to her leg and a punctured lung, robbing her of the opportunity to ride in her first Group 1 race later that day, aboard Ecumenical in the Australasian Oaks.

Fortunately, her injuries were relatively minor and although frustrated at missing the carnival, she has maintained perspective.

“I think it’s more so relief than disappointment,” Eaton says, while musing on her overwhelming emotion.

“We work in a game that’s quite dangerous… and I’m just very lucky I’ve come out the way I have, with no serious injuries.

“There’s an element of frustration, because I have goals I want to achieve, but I certainly can’t be looking at the negatives in all this.

“I think I’d be damaging myself more if I complain about the ‘what ifs’ and what I’ve missed out on.

“You’ve got to look ahead, not behind, so I try to not let it worry me.”

Eaton was cleared to ride trackwork on Wednesday this week, and has four mounts at Murray Bridge this Saturday.

“I’m happy with how things are going – I don’t feel like I’ve lost any fitness, so that’s good,” she said.

“I had a punctured lung, but fortunately it was only less than 10 per cent of damage and that was actually discovered quite quickly.

“And I passed my concussion test early last week, so the doctor’s happy for me to come back.”

Potter’s absence, though less high-profile, has been substantially longer than Eaton’s courtesy of a trackwork fall at Strathalbyn on November 11 last year that resulted in him breaking a bone in his wrist.

“It was just a harmless fall, but I landed with my hands down and that’s what broke my scaphoid again,” Potter said.

“The doctor said ‘you’ve got to tuck and roll’ but that’s probably the last thing you think of as you fly through the air. You just land how you land.”

Potter’s weight ballooned to over 61kg during his layoff, but he is back to 54kg now, allowing him to take a handful of rides on Saturday at Murray Bridge and again on Sunday at Port Augusta.

“I’ve been riding work for a couple of months, the body’s fit and the weight’s down,” he said.

“The wrist actually feels great. There’s probably a bit less movement than before the operation, but at the moment it’s giving me no grief.”

In thoroughbred parlance, Potter expects to take plenty of benefit from his first-up efforts.

“I’ll probably blow out the first couple of races, a bit like a racehorse,” he said.

“You can be fit, but there’s just that little bit more pressure on race days.”

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